ABOUT

YUDH - Three perspectives, One Truth (2013) - Many a time in our life we see perfectly good and innocent people face hardships beyond belief. Innocent children fall victim to cruelty which leaves us wondering if there is any divine justice. In YUDH we focus on such an incident and look at it through three perspectives, those of humans, God, and Satan. Each perspective offers a logical end in itself. We can all go back with answers, all of them valid, but perhaps completely different. YUDH is not a story that ties in with any religion, nor does it refute any. What we have is a stimulating experience which is brought to life with a clarity that perhaps no classical art form can deliver as Bharathanatyam can!

YUDH is an original production. The story and stage play by AK Srikanth were created specifically for this project. The music scored by the famous Chennai based composer Rajkumar Bharathi consists of extremely innovative compositions. The music of YUDH, while strictly based on Indian ragas, would leave the audience in wonder when they find that the sound track has such an international feel to it. Indian classical music can sound Carnatic, Chinese, or Arabic, without a note deviating from the raga as it should be! Rajkumar has used a plethora of instruments to reach this level; the audience would also find the use of Zitar, Oudh, Viola along with traditional instruments.

YUDH is also a visual spectacle. It uses lighting, directed by Victor Paulraj (Chennai) to an effect as though it is a character in this presentation. Victor's evocative lighting design is perfectly complimented with the designs and colours of Joy Antony's (Chennai) costumes. The audience comprehension of the story is supported by voice overs - each character has been voiced by eminent theater artists of the South. The power of the backstage team explodes on stage with the sheer choreography and dancing skills of Savitha Sastry. Even though the presentation is a solo performance, at no point does the audience feel the absence of a group. In fact, you may well be excused for thinking that group shows might even detract from delivering the story with an honesty and elegance.

The YUDH experience is gut wrenching and visceral. These are hardly adjectives that have ever been used to describe a classical dance performance. But then, there has never been such a classical dance performance other than Soul Cages. For once, just for once, the audience will see an edge of the seat classical dance performance - the very use of those words seem contradictory! Savitha and her team at Sai Shree Arts pull it off like no one ever has.

CREDITS

Producer

AK Srikanth

Artistic Direction and Choreography

Savitha Sastry

Story and Script

AK Srikanth

Music and Lyrics

Rajkumar Bharathi

Technical Direction and Lighting

Victor Paulraj, Studio7

Sound Analyst

Sai Shravanam, Resound India

Costume design

C A Joy, Joy Dressers; Arun Kumar Tiwari, Earthern Canvas

Makeup

Huda Amini

Photography and Design

Aditya Sastry, Lost Arrows Studios

Narration

Hans Kaushik, Akhila Ramnarayan, Govind Venkatesan, Varun Iyer

Vocals

Krithika Arvind & Srikanth

Keyboard

Vijayshankar

Mrdangam

Vijayaraghavan

Tabla

Ganapathy

Veena

Bhavani Prasad

Sitar and Zitar

Kishore

Flute

Vishnu

Violin

Embar Kannan; Yensone and group

Recording Studio

Resound India, Chennai

SELECTED REVIEWS

India's foremost Bharathanatyam
exponent who has changed the face of
the art form with her modern production.